What's in store & more:

1. Students should register for Thespys, College Auditions, Scholarships, & more! We have more resources to help prepare your students this year too!
2. Look out for our headliners to be announced, hopefully by November!
3. Get your registrations in early before prices go up & pay within two weeks of finalizing it or late fees can start to accrue.
4. Apply to bring a one act or mainstage production by Nov! Read more about them here: One Act Process & Mainstage Logistics
5. Stay tuned for special deals, limited student opportunities, & more!
6. Early bird one act tickets come out 1st week of November. Sales for all regular registrations open the following week.

1. If you didn't do the Early Bird registration, complete the School Interest Survey.
2. Check your email for your individual registration forms to follow in the coming days.
3. Put in your approval/ transportation requests.
4. Collect all essential student information and registration fees (consider if you need hotel rooms, breakfast is included in registration for each day, lunch/ dinner on your own). Template form you can use will be emailed for your community to complete + a master Google Sheet you as the teacher/ director will complete and email in when completed.
   
5. Email treasurer@vathespian.org when your registration forms/ Google Sheets are complete so we can craft your invoice appropriately.
   
6. Book any necessary hotel rooms by visiting our "Official Hotel" page, use the booking link and code VTF25 for 1-2 rooms OR the bulk rooming template and email it to Connie.Chao@hilton.com.
7. Reserve your transportation EARLY! It can take a while if you haven't done this before. Also, try reaching out to your local/nearby schools to see if they are going and you can share a bus/ carpool. As a reminder, this conference is for both middle and high schools! Invite your neighbors to come and join us!
8. Help students register for student events/ other experiences: Bring a Mainstage, Bring a One Act, Register for Thespys, Apply for a Scholarship, Help prep students for College Auditions, & more! If you are a middle school, consider participating in our fun Middle School Competition!
9. Pay your invoices via check or Quickbooks link(s) via credit card. NOTE: All non-school staff adults need background checks this year. If your chaperones have background checks from other jobs, we need email evidence of their "cleared" status. Otherwise it will be a service we provide for $4.40 a person that is NOT covered by registration fees. This is a requirement from EdTA. Also NOTE: You MUST pay your registration to be considered both for mainstage/ one act slots so we will check you have paid before you are accepted. Please email us if you have concern about this.
10. Apply for a VTF grant if your students have major financial need. These are limited each year and typically given to first year attending schools.

Stay tuned for MORE student experiences to come! One act tickets, mainstage/ ceremony assignments, announcements of performances, and more coming in October/November. Late registration is open until Dec. 2nd but prices go up for returning schools during that time.

Please reach out if we can support you/ your program in any way!

We are reaching out about a special offer for our upcoming Broadway in Tysons performance. As you know, we are thrilled to be bringing dynamic Broadway performances to Tysons and are very excited to welcome Dear Evan Hansen October 18 – 20 for five performances only!

We are excited to provide a special offer for students to attend the upcoming performances of Dear Evan Hansen with $25.00 tickets. This special student ticket offer is available for select tickets of all performances and while supplies last. Please use the code DEHSTUDENT in the unlock bar on Ticketmaster to access this special offer.

Note: Dear Evan Hansen is recommended for ages 12+ and contains adult themes, including discussions of taking one’s own life.

Please share this special offer with any students who might be interested in attending the show.

1. Updated forms to hopefully streamline and collect information.

2. Chatbot on the website to help answer questions from the get-go, on each page, but, check it out on the FAQ page if you can't find it or haven't used it before.

3. College Internship Program - bring an alum as a chaperone/ have them apply for an internship to stay involved and get volunteer hours or possibly even college credit over their winter break! Please share this out with any alumni so we can get them more involved and have trustworthy help for VTF!

4. Colleges in attendance are listed earlier. We already have almost 40 colleges coming whereas this time last year we just started inviting them. We got a jump start and already have NEW programs that haven't come to VTF before!

Stay tuned for the Volunteer Sign Up Genius coming out in the next week or so. Read more information about volunteering below!

REGISTRATION: https://vathespians.booktix.com/dept/main/e/TEI25 Join us next summer for the most amazing shared teacher experience! Forget traditional PDs, this is a lesson sharathon, teachers sharing best strategies with teachers, bonding, lesson planning, and more! Add more to your teacher toolbox and join us in August! We are looking for presenters. Consider proposing a topic! PRICES GO UP $20 for each ticket type after Nov 1st!

Booktix & Ludus Affiliate Programs

Consider Booktix or Ludus for your ticketing programs. Work through our referrals so we get a kickback to further more student opportunities in VA at the festival and beyond!

Virginia Thespians are excited to announce a continued partnership with BookTix Online Ticketing! Many of our schools already use BookTix for their ticketing & fundraising needs. By partnering with BookTix, VA Thespians receive a percentage of all sales which goes directly into creating programs for your students! When you use BookTix, you not only make ticketing simpler for your box office, families & patrons, you are also giving back to VA Thespians. BookTix has committed to helping us grow in many ways, including sponsorship, education opportunities & more! Please use our affiliate link to sign up for a demonstration of their robust system & see for yourself:

CLICK HERE

We're thrilled to continue our partnership with Virginia Thespians, helping your community shine with the best in ticketing, our new volunteer management, collections feature, and more! At Ludus, we're all about streamlining your theatre operations—from easy ticket sales to coordinating your amazing volunteers. Plus, stay tuned for even more exciting updates coming later this year to make your productions run smoother than ever! Learn more at https://hello.ludus.com!

Getting Members Signed Up: Ensure your members sign up using your referral code or partner landing page. This ensures they are automatically assigned to your partner dashboard. We've seen fantastic sign-ups in your area and want to ensure everyone is making the most of their referral codes. Your success is our success! If you would like a webinar, we can schedule one for all contacts or you can inquire yourself.

• Your Referral Code: Ludus.com/VT​
• Your Partner Landing Page: https://www.partners.ludus.com/partners/vt

Product Updates: We continue to add new features and improve existing ones based on your feedback. Recent updates include:

• Volunteer Management: Streamline your volunteer operations with our easy-to-use tool.
• Waitlists: Enable a "Join Waitlist" button on your Events and Classes.
• Direct Forms: Share direct links to forms for collecting information and data.
• Apps: Android and iOS apps are now available!
• Pay Options: Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Apple Wallet are all available. As well as "other" option available for Venmo, etc.
• Collections/Registration updates: Collect payments for member fees, trips, registrations, and more.
• Branding: Fully customizable areas within Ludus to reflect your organization's branding.
• Ticket Transfer: No more having to hold tickets for someone, you can easily transfer it to another phone # or email!

Check our social media accounts for EdTA, our parent organization or for VA Thespians for recent reminders and updates. Get more resources, learn more about International Thespian Society, and more! Read this "How To" short document for festival registration. The rest of this newsletter repeats from last month. It is here again for convenience and as a reminder. We do have an update on the VA mandates/protocols. Please read below.

Email: executivedirector@vathespian.org
Website: https://www.vathespian.org/mission.html
Location: Winchester, VA, USA
Phone: 703-554-3416
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaThespians
Twitter: @thespians1

Use the most up-to-date logos , colors, fonts, etc. for a refresh and to get your branding up to speed with our new logos. Break a leg on fall auditions, productions, one act competitions, ITS inductions, first quarters, and more. Let us know how we can help support you this year!

Did you hear we have a Virginia Thespians Alumni Facebook group? Consider passing this along to your graduating seniors. So far, it is an inspiring network of over 300 professionals, who can be valuable resources for your students beyond high school. These are previous Thespians who remember what it is like to be in their shoes and many of which are happy to serve as mentors. We are creating an alumni board to also fundraise resources for students going to festival, bring in more alumni guest artists, and more! If you are an alumni, consider joining it yourself! We have many more plans in store for the alumni to partner with us to support the current as well as future generations of Virginia Thespians! Join us today!

Here is an easy step-by-step checklist for spring inductions. Use these materials as you see fit!

1. Hold an interest meeting. Ask- Who is interested in becoming inducted into ITS?

2. Share out the point application (your own copy) for students to complete with their past and current theatrical experiences for certain point values.

3. Have students fill out the Member Google form, (your own copy) for the exact information you need to collect to put them into the official ITS/ EdTA system, and pay $35 for the one-time membership fee, which lasts them a lifetime. (More materials at the bottom of the newsletter to promote and explain ITS.)

4. Hold inductions. Here is a sample outline to use. You can create your own rituals, traditions, or if you are in a pinch, it can be less than 30 minutes before school starts or before a rehearsal for example.

5. Log into your myedta account to input all of your new inductees.

6. Pay the lump sum as the director, if your students didn't pay EdTA directly. Our suggestion is to collect the money as you typically do for school events, work with your bookkeeper or boosters to cut one check to EdTA to keep it simple.

7. Hold an end of year or semester celebration to hand out the new goodies when they are delivered to the school! Here is the Thespian store for graduation regalia. If you are trying to save money, cords can be found on Amazon too.

Don't have a troupe yet? Read more about the benefits and process here! You do not need a minimum number of students now to activate/ reactivate your troupe. Get started today! Other resources on inductions from EdTA. Want a 2nd troupe director or someone to go in your place to Thespian events? Consider an Associate Troupe Director!

*Hold fall inductions, so your students get inducted, so they get the discounts for all events and, so they can qualify to move onto nationals with their Thespys. Deadline to be inducted is around 4/15 to qualify for ITF.

Here is a Google Slides PPT about Thespians to encourage students to join or convince Admin about the benefits of having an International Thespians Honors Society troupe or coming to VTF.

Here is a Festival Guide for students or new troupe directors.